Monday, December 11, 2006

Sesame Snaps (Tilgul)

Tilgul: A sweet which is prepared in all Marathi households on the 14th of January which is Sakranti. As with most Indian festivals which are in one way or the other associated with the seasons of the year , Sakranti too has an association with the winter season. Sesame and jaggery the 2 main ingredients here both produce heat in the body and so this sweet is particularly made on this day. This is one festival when the colour black is also celebrated and people particularly buy and wear black clothes on Sankranti. There is so much to share about this festival thatI will need another entire post to go into all the details.

But if Sankranti is still a month away why have I posted this Tilgul recipe now instead of in January. Well there are 4 reasons: 1. I made these yesterday as a practice session before the actual festival. My mother does this when she is not too sure about how a particular sweet will turn out.(which in her case is not often). 2. I will be taking a break from blogging in January as I am going to India for a 3 week holiday. 3. i wanted to share a tilgul recipe before the festival, so even you can try your hand at it a little in advance. 4. The sesame snaps turned out so well that I am as usual very impatient to share them with you.

Some of you might wonder why I call them Sesame Snaps. Well I discovered this name when I came to the UK. I saw these Sesame Snaps in a store. They are very similar and do satisfy my cravings for tilgul.

I have to admit that I have not used Jaggery in these. I substituted it with Demerara Sugar which is a delicious replacement for Jaggery. The recipe is one of the quickest. By quick I mean you have to be really quick while following some of the steps.
What you need:
1 cup Roasted Sesame seeds,
1.5 cups Brown Sugar,(or jaggery)
1/4 teaspoon Ghee (clarified butter)
3 to 4 drops Lemon Juice
Procedure:
Before you actually start with the cooking part, you need to grease a a small round area (about 10 cm in diametre) of your kitchen platform with a little calrified butter. Also grease a rolling pin with some ghee. This prevents the hot mixture from sticking to the surface and the pin.
Now in a heavy bottom pan melt the ghee and add to that the sugar and the lemon juice.Keep the heat low.
Once the sugar has completely melted, add the sesame seeds and quickly mix it with the sugar. Do this as fast as you can.
Now pour out this mixture onto the greased are on your kitchen paltform and immediately begin rolling it out with the greased pin . Roll it as thin as you can. IMP: Do not touch the hot mixture with your hands as it will stick to your hand and will burn the skin. Just as a precaution grease your palms with ghee too.)
Now take a sharp knife or a pizza cutter and mark out the diamond shapes (the shape can be any of your choice). This has to be done before the mixture hardens completely. Once the mixture hardens break out the individual pieces.
Store these in an airtight container. They keep for weeks
You will make about 30 to 35 pieces


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was neat!!! I have never used demerara sugar while making this.... mostly use jaggery. We also call it chiki. I liked your idea of using pizza cutter to cut them. :)

FH said...

Looks great Anupama! Eveevry Indian's childhood memories are associated with this:))

Anonymous said...

I have discovered sesame snaps in the Uk and I adore them.
Your recipe sounds glorious and goes straight in the MUST TRY ASAP pile!

Brilynn said...

I've never made this myself, but I really like sesame snaps. I didn't know it was also called tilgul.

Krithika said...

These look perfect ! Love the fact that no syrup stages like softball etc have to be checked. THanks for sharing this recipe

Nabeela said...

oh they look soo nice! the recipe doesn't sound that complicated either...thanks for sharing.

Sangeeta said...

Hi Anupama,

My mother always made this for Makar Sankranti (14th Jan). Some dishes are common to the entire country :) Thanks for sharing

Vaishali said...

Anupama,
Tilgul looks great. I am not gonna try this one out, though. I am weary of pulling out the fillings/caps off my teeth, you know. :) Well, let's hope you enjoy(ed) them. :)

Seema Bhat said...

Anupama:
man i didnt know it was so easy to make tilgul ...man yours has come out just perfect ...i loved the pictures as well and the perfect triangular diamonds that u made out of them
Thanks for sharing buddy and i am gonna add your blog link in my site so i dont miss out any of your recipies from here on
Cheers
Seema

Anonymous said...

Wow! You cut them into perfect diamonds. I am sure I would make a mess.. I might try this recipe.

Dr. Soumya Bhat said...

Hmmm the look so great.Cheers

Shekhar said...

That's neat. You know what here's another recipe for Tilgul (not the sesame snaps)

Fry sesame on light flame till they turn brown
Take equal amount of powedered brown sugar, or jaggery
Take equal amount of the fried sesame and jaggery, mix with 1/4th amount of dry coconut
Grind in a blender till it's a fine mix
Roll into small balls


Mmmmmmmmm.........

Tilgul kha ani god god bola....

Anonymous said...

cool recipe! Can you tell me how long it took for them to harden?

Unknown said...

We maharashtrians very much like this, and we eat this on Makar sankrant.

"Kreative Karma" said...

Thank you for this! I was looking all around the internet for Sesame Snaps recipe. So I used a combination of several and made my own recipe.